Generate an Okta Access Gateway Backup Immediately and Resolve Download Errors
Last Updated:
Overview
Administrators often require an immediate Okta Access Gateway (OAG) backup during testing or configuration changes, rather than waiting for the scheduled midnight backup. Generating a manual backup via the command line creates the backup file, but downloading it from the UI results in a file permission error. Resolve this by modifying the file permissions of the backup file via the command line.
When attempting to download the manually generated backup from the UI, Okta displays a generic error message:
Server Side Error occurred
Server side exception has been logged. Please notify support.
The following error is visible in the server logs:
2026-07-30T10:22:33.000-04:00 oag.support.lab ACCESS_GATEWAY WEB_CONSOLE Invalid backup file name: oagConfigBackup.20260730-102132.tar.bz2.
Applies To
- Okta Identity Engine (OIE)
- Okta Classic Engine
- Okta Access Gateway (OAG)
- Backup
Cause
The download error occurs due to incorrect file permissions. When the scheduled cron job runs, it sets different permissions than when an administrator executes the backup command manually in the shell.
Solution
How is an immediate Okta Access Gateway backup generated and downloaded?
Generate the manual backup, adjust the file permissions to allow downloading, and optionally replicate the backup to worker nodes by executing the following commands in the shell.
- Launch the shell and execute the backup script:
sudo /opt/oag/scripts/oag_backup.sh - Switch to the root user:
sudo su - - Modify the permissions on all backup files to ensure consistency and allow downloads:
chmod 644 /opt/oag/backups/oagConfigBackup* - Download the backup file from the UI.
- (Optional) Replicate the newly created backup to the worker nodes by executing the replication script after the backup completes:
/opt/oag/scripts/replicateBackup.sh
